October 26, 2008

Stream of consciousness

"You are not your thoughts but the awareness of your thoughts." I don't know who said this but i very much identify with it. Thinking about my thoughts is something i like to do, although i sometimes get caught up in it and over analyse. However the idea that the human mind can rationalise and simultaneously accept and reject different thoughts is one that certainly appeals to me. I also like the idea that in this way our minds are microcosms of our society in that as an ideal collective mind we are able to accept good ideas among men yet at the same time filter out fundamentally wrong mentalities.

I guess the opposite of over analysing ones thoughts would be to allow them to flow continuously, in a 'stream of consciousness'. I found that stream of consciousness writing is very, very interesting. I was trying it the other day and was very surprised at the results. I took a pen and just started recording in point form what i thinking, one after another, and didn't give a second thought to what i was thinking, and writing down. When i was done, i was really surprised at what i had thought in 10 minutes, but even more how much i had thought!

I found myself writing down some ideas that i've thought or emotions that i've felt but never really been able (or wanted) to put into complete words. I guess it brings forth some of the mind's fragmentary thoughts that are caught in the backdrift sometimes, things that we normally wouldn't bring out if we were talking to other people or so. I think it could even throw up some solutions to problems that we wouldn't 'think' of otherwise, or at least it could help us 'catch' that stray thought in our mind and develop it fully.

Either way, thinking about my thoughts and recording them is kind of an important thing to me, it almost approaches compulsion sometimes. I've decided to use this blog to record some of them from now on i guess. But of course, "Actions maketh the man, not his thoughts" (again i don't know who said this)

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